Wright, Michael – The Bell Bookshop

Je taime A La Folie

Emma — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

How do you find the woman of your dreams when you’re nearly forty, living in the middle of nowhere and spectacularly ungifted in the art of seduction?

Three years into his solo adventure in rural France, Michael Wright has everything he ever wanted: a ramshackle house, several manly power tools, a cat, a grand piano and a vintage aircraft. Yet the lovelier his life becomes, the lonelier he feels. Three unfulfilled wishes return to haunt him: to grow a perfect potato, to fly a Spitfire and, most of all, to meet his soulmate.

Written with honesty, self-deprecating wit and life-affirming passion, Michael Wright’s new memoir reveals how, while his livestock seem bent on reproduction, a solitary man can learn to accept being single . . .Or so he thinks until a bumptious American Labrador and a perilous landing in a light aircraft conspire to offer a glimpse of romance that could turn his whole world upside down.

C’est la Folie

Emma — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

In early 2004, 38-year-old Michael Wright turned his back on Blighty and began a new life as the owner of a delapidated 15th century farmhouse called 'La Folie'. This title describes his search for a deeper, richer, simpler life.

C’est La Folie

Emma — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0000

One day in late summer, Michael Wright gave up his comfortable South London existence and, with only his long-suffering cat for company, set out to begin a new life. His destination was ‘La Folie’, a dilapidated 15th century farmhouse in need of love and renovation in the heart of rural France…
Inspired by the success of his column in the Daily Telegraph about La Folie, this book is his winningly honest account of his struggle to fulfil a childhood dream and become a Real Man – to make the journey from social townie to rugged, solitary paysan. And in chronicling his enthusiastic attempts at looking after livestock and coming to terms with the concept of living Abroad Alone, the author discovers what it takes to be a man at the beginning of the 21st century, especially if one is short sighted, flat footed and not very good at games.
Life-affirming, laugh out loud funny (and boasting more than its fair share of larger-than-life locals, bilingual chickens, diminutive but over-sexed sheep, invisible rodents, manly power tools with unpronounceable names, plus the occasional femmes fatale), this tale of a new-found life in France with a cat, a piano and an aeroplane, is both an elegy for a world that’s fast disappearing as a hymn to the simple pleasures of being alive.